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Wild Game Sanctuary

Local game need a place to hide and thrive.

With hunting land becoming that much more expensive and hard to come by it’s difficult for many hunters to resist the urge not to claim every inch. However, one of the largest elements of hunting and least discussed is preservation. Not just of the animals but of their habitat as well.

An easy step toward keeping a healthy wild game population on your hunting property is to maintain a small conservation area. By setting aside a portion of your hunting territory as game sanctuary you give the local population a place of shelter where they feel safe. There are two schools of thought as to how effective this method is.

You a basically aiding and abetting wild game by offering them a place to easily escape to. This then makes it more difficult to hunt, as them will simply staff in this safe zone.

The second school of thought completely agrees that they will run to the safe zone when pressured.but also believes because they have a place on your property to escape to, they are more likely to stay on your property.

Large wild game, or even small for that matter can cover an incredible amount of ground when pressured. If they don’t feel safe and are pressured everywhere around them they will simply relocate, putting them out of range for good. If however you setup a game sanctuary on your land you offer them a false sense of security and they will more likely stay local. This is to your advantage because at some point in time they will undoubtedly step outside of this sanctuary and back into your designated hunting area.

This concept is even more relevant when crossbow or bow hunting because range is such a limitation. A poor shot or even a sudden movement maybe enough to spook an animal. If that animal is already stressed out that maybe the last time you ever see it if it doesn’t have a nearby refuge.

So next time you’re thinking about tromping through and setting up a stand in every square mile of your bush consider setting aside a small portion to keep your local trophies in range.